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FABRE,J.HENRI**: : THE MASON-BEES - Translated by ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA de MATTOS,F.Z.S.[Signed association copy.]

LONDON.HODDER & STOUGHTON,[nd.]c.1914.

ISBN No ISBN.

UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj,as issued(?),undated, SIGNED,1st edn.(Published simultaneously in USA by Dodd,Mead & Co., NY.) VG+.No dw/dj - as issued(?),but with Jessie Marion King's own hand-written art nouveau stylised signature to ffe,but in her married name 'Jessie MK-Taylor.' Her husband was the artist Ernest Archibald Taylor.An association copy,from her own personal library,collection.Publisher's original dark green,gilt decorated,cloth bds; with negligible shelf-wear to edges and corners.Boards generally clean with two small wax(?) splashes to upper board which is decorated with a bright,crisp, stamped gilt silhouette of a Mason-Bee in flight just below book's author and title letters,stamped but slightly oxidised,gilt letters to spine/backstrip.Miniscule bumping and rubbing with reciprocal colour loss to corners and to both head+foot of spine/backstrip which is also slightly faded - as usual/normal.Described fairly and honestly,because of the value of the book,and nowhere near as bad as it reads! [Indeed,a much prettier and more decorated book than the drab US,Dodd,Mead & Co,NY, 1914,1st edn,which is a dull brick-red, impressed honeycomb designed boards with plain gilt letters.] Top edge coloured, fore-edge slightly aged/tanned - as usual/ normal - and minimally foxed/spotted; contents bright,tight and clean,greater majority of pages are bright and foxing-free.Offset foxing to both free endpapers - due to both pastedowns,also lightly foxed/spotted to half-title+title pages, 2pp translator's notes + 2pp contents list /table and also to the last 2pp of the book and the 4pp index a rear.UK,8vo HB, no dw/dj - as issued(?),Autographed 1st edn,half-title+title pages,v-viiipp+2- 324pp [paginated] includes translator's notes,contents list/table comprising 11 chapters and an index.Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos for 'THE WORKS OF J.HENRI FABRE' [an eminent French naturalist and entomologist],series by this publisher.This book contains a series of essays on the subject of Mason-Bees (Chalicodomae) along with some essays on other insects (and an esssay on cats). Essays include: The Mason-Bees, Experiments, Exchanging the Nests, More Inquiries into Mason-Bees, The Story of My Cats, The Red Ants, Reflections upon Insect Psychology, Parasites, The Theory of Parasitism, The Tribulations of the Mason-Bee,and,The Leucospes. A lovely copy with Jessie M. King's uncommon ownership and more uncommon, married name signature. See also,the following,sequential,alpha-numerical book ID for another companion volume also similarly,SIGNED,association copy,from the same series and the same personal library. Jessie Marion King (c.1875-1949).Married name Mrs E. A. Taylor.Usually worked as Jessie M. King.Studied at the Glasgow School of Art where she was influenced by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle. Visited France and Italy on a travelling scholarship and was particularly impressed by Botticelli's drawings in th Uffizi.In 1898,her work attracted the attention of 'The Studio' and became widely known through its pages.She taught book decoration at the Glasgow School of Art (1902),and in the same year won a gold medal for book design at the Turin International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art.During the following years she worked as a muralist,designer of fabric,jewellery and costume,and as a book illustrator and book cover designer.She moved to Paris in 1911,and for the next 2 years ran the Schealing Atelier for Fine Art with her husband,artist Ernet Archibald Taylor While in Paris,she was inspired by the Russian Ballet to experiment with colour; after her return to Scotland (1913),she took up pictorial batik,and gradually devoted less time to illustration.She eventually settled at Kircudbright.Her work,whilst bearing the imprint of the Glasgow school,was extremely individual. John Russell Taylor,who considered her work worthy of comparison with that of Aubrey Beardsley and Charles Ricketts, wrote,'the image she conjures up of pale ladies festooned in stars and attended by flights of birds,of wan haloed knights, lost in reverie and drifting through wispy landscapes of faint transfigured trees and insubstantial dream castles of the mind,is not quite like anything else in art,and once entered,never wholly escaped from.' She worked with a delicate line in pen and ink,sometimes with colour washes. Curiously,she never really overcame the problems of assimulating written titles into her pictorial designs,and her hand drawn lettering often strikes a discordant note.The foremost Scottish book designer and illustrator of the 20th century. These books were purchased together,from a part-time bookseller from/in Buittle, Castle Douglas, Kircudbrightshire,Scotland in July 1988. Please contact seller,because of the weight and the value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB,no dw/dj(as issued?),SIGNED,1st edn.
SIGNED association copy.

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